Day 33 - Manhattan, KS

It was hard to leave the comfort of a hotel bed and the sound sleep it rendered. After a leisuely breakfast i was out on the road. After yesterdays bad route, I decided to disregard googles suggestion and plan my own path riding due north out of Topeka up to route 24 which I would follow west for the rest of the day.

I have been thinking of a number improvements for google's route algorithim when it comes to bicycling. Here are a few things that it doesn't yet take into Account: a) number of turns. It is worth adding a few extra miles to put yourself on a more simple path. Constantly checking for turns slows you down. b) altitude. Hills slow you down too. it would be great to avoid them at the expense of some extra miles c) resources. In places like western Kansas you can travel 150 miles on a road and not pass a town with food or water.

Route 24 is a 70 mph two lane highway with a two foot shoulder. I was riding into a consistent southernly crosswind, except when I turned north and it became a tailwind. You don't notice a tailwind at first, but it is like riding on a conveyor belt, letting me pedal effortlessly at 22 mphs.

Ever so often a big rig would sail past from behind creating a wave of wind which would crash over my back powerful enough to knock me off my bike if didn't have my hands on the bars. It would push my shirt up my back as it thrusted me along the road.




I was in farmland, riding along vast cornfields when I noticed the intricate machinery used to work the land. George Lucas would do well to model his next intergalactic vehicles after farm equipment.


Tall rigs with articulating haversters were working the land. Long hydration scaffolds covered hundreds of feet.

Along route 24 I stopped in the town of Wemago, a small prarie town with the promise of some local site seeing. On mainstreet I passed the museum of hhe wizard of Oz, a small store front with gobs of memerobilia on display, including some eerie manikans of the main characters.

I arrived in Manhattan, the little apple as they call it, around 5pm and and found a local pool to relax at for a few ours. Ryan had found a host for us in town on warmshowers.org, a bicycle touring community site simmalar to couchsurfing.com. We stayed with Jeff and 7 other colledge kids living in a big four bedroom house. They are all avid bikers and have developed a great bike scene here in town, holding a bike repair night and bike polo matches. Their front room was littered with 9 or so bikes in a stand they built.

We recieved the finest hospitality, being taken over to Rod's, another friend, for burgers and then a tour through the town and college campus. Thanks guys for puttin us up. Makes me excited to host bikers when I get back to the other Manhattan.

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